Adams County board deals with Robins Lake dam, public defenders

NATCHEZ, Miss. – A plan to fix a small, imperiled Adams County dam that could break will be submitted to state officials with hopes it’ll be approved at a cost much less than what had been estimated.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality had imposed a June 30 deadline for Adams County officials to develop a remedy for the Robins Lake dam. It’s been labeled by the state a “high hazard” dam that could break and flood parts of south Adams County.

While a plan and cost estimates have not been presented yet to MDEQ, the “good news” is steps are being made that won’t cost the $1 million or so that had previously been estimated, said county Board of Supervisors attorney Scott Slover. County officials have come up with remediation measures that could cost an estimated $70,000 or so, Slover said Monday at a telemeeting of Adams County’s five supervisors.

He said he talked last Friday with  MDEQ officials, who had earlier made recommendations that are “cost-prohibitive.”

The Robins Lake dam’s failure could cause “loss of life, serious damage to homes, industrial or commercial buildings, important public utilities, main highways or railroads,” according to MDEQ’s definition of such high-hazard dams.

Remediation options presented to the county board in recent months include rebuilding the earthen dike or just tearing it down and drain the small lake it retains.

While the dam and lake are privately owned, the county board took ownership of the public road atop it several years ago. There are several landowners at Robins Lake, but countless numbers reside downstream who could be flooded if the dam breaks.

Robins Lake is located about 10 miles south of Natchez and west of U.S. 61 and Lower Woodville Road between the Cloverdale and Sibley areas.

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Adams County supervisors said they agree with circuit judges on the need for establishing an office of county-paid attorneys to defend indigents accused of crimes. However, they’ll wait to see what funds are available for it. The proposed public defenders office with five lawyers could cost as much as $320,000 a year, said Circuit Judge Lillie Blackmon Sanders, who met with county supervisors Monday.

This would replace the current practice of retaining nine private attorneys the court calls on to represent criminal defendants who can’t afford to hire their own. The lawyers now retained as public defenders are paid $2,800 a month by the county.

As proposed, Sanders would appoint a chief public defender, who would hire four other attorneys who would work part time to represent defendants accused of crimes in Adams County. Sanders is the Circuit Court’s senior judge. Debra Blackwell is the other circuit judge.

Sanders said establishing a county public defenders office would improve the current system.

A 2018 report for the Mississippi Legislature cited a study of public defenders in Adams and nine other Mississippi counties. A key finding of that study was that they had “no method to ensure that its local governments are fulfilling the state’s constitutional obligation to provide effective assistance of counsel to the indigent accused in felony cases in its trial courts.”